Thursday, September 21, 2017

Earthquake reveals heroic Mexico -- Sept. 21, 2017 column

The nation watched with hope as Mexicans struggled together
in the aftermath of a violent earthquake Tuesday that killed at least 250
people.

A doctor volunteered to climb through the ruins of the
collapsed Enrique Rebsamen school in Mexico City, risking his life to search
for children trapped in the rubble.

Dr. Pedro Serrano crawled on his stomach in crevices
to a classroom, only to find a girl, a woman and a man dead, he told The
Associated Press.

Then Mexico’s elite volunteer rescue team Los Topos,
the Moles, combed through the school’s debris by hand, carefully removing
pieces of concrete and lumber in their search for survivors.

Los Topos raised fists to command silence in hopes of
hearing faint sounds of life. More than 25 people died at the three-story school
when a wing fell onto itself.

As anguished family members waited, strangers rushed
to the school and to similar scenes around the capital, bringing water and food
and staying to pray. The 7.1-magnitude quake toppled dozens of buildings in the capital alone.

“This is the spirit of Mexico,” a volunteer in Mexico
City told CNN. “That’s our community in general;
it crosses classes – if you are rich or poor – and any other divide.”

The images were heartbreaking and heroic, just as they
were after hurricanes in Houston, the Keys, along the East Coast and Puerto
Rico.

Sadly, heroic is a word we seldom associate with
Mexico.

Our politicians for generations have promoted a dark
cartoon version of our southern neighbor.

Since after World War I, some politicians have blamed Mexicans
for bringing crime and drugs into the country, although most Mexicans come to
work and employers rely on them.

In 1919, a page-one headline in The New York Times
warned: “Anarchists Flood Here from Mexico – Dangerous Aliens Smuggled Across
Border at Rate of 100 a Day – Stricter Laws Needed.”

“During the 1920s, politicians and pundits in the
Southwest made the eugenic argument that Mexican immigrants would `destroy
white civilization,’” historian Neil Foley writes in his 2014 book, “Mexicans
in the Making of America.”

During the Depression, the United States deported half
a million Mexicans when jobs here were scarce, but during World War II, the
U.S. welcomed tens of thousands of “braceros,” mostly farm workers, from
Mexico.

In the 1950s, Operation Wetback again deported
Mexicans, writes Foley, chair of the history department at SMU. A Mexican
American, he received his undergraduate education at the University of
Virginia.

The latest politician to malign Mexico and Mexicans to
his benefit is Donald Trump.

“They are not our friend, believe me,” Trump said when
he announced his candidacy for president in June 2015 at Trump Tower. He blamed
Mexico for stealing our jobs, hurting our economy in trade and exporting its
problems.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending
their best,” he said. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and
they’re bringing those problems . . . They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing
crime. They’re rapists,” he said and added, grudgingly, “And some, I assume,
are good people.”

His vow to build a wall along the 2,000-mile border
with Mexico and make Mexico pay for it was a centerpiece of his campaign, and
he still says that will happen.

After Mexico suffered an earthquake Sept. 7 that
killed at least 90 people, Trump was criticized for his slow response in
offering sympathy and support. This week, though, he quickly extended a hand,
tweeting a couple of hours after the quake: “God bless the people of Mexico
City. We are with you and will be there for you.”

He called Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto Wednesday
to offer condolences, assistance and rescue teams, the White House said.

The snapshots from earthquake-devastated Mexico and
the hurricane-ravaged United States show that more unites than separates us. As
humans, we all suffer from the capriciousness of nature.

The president is right to stand with Mexico in its
hour of need. We’ll see how long the era of good feeling lasts, but it’s a
start.